Professors Edith Heard, Tilli Tansey, Caroline Ogilvie and Robin Ali were all recognised in the King's Birthday Honours List for services to science and genetics.
Professor Edith Heard was awarded a CMG, Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George, 'for services to science and UK-France relations'. She has been director general of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory since 2019, overseeing the scientific programme for the organisation's 29 member states. Professor Heard will assume the role of director of the Francis Crick Institute later this year.
'I am incredibly proud to receive this recognition, not just for what it means to me personally, but because it highlights the power and importance of working across nations,' said Professor Heard. 'Science is, at its heart, an international endeavour, transcending borders, languages, and politics. Our continued progress depends on connecting the collective effort of many minds across the globe.'
Professor Tilli Tansey was awarded a CBE 'for services to the understanding and promotion of medical history and science'. Professor Tansey is emeritus professor of medical history and pharmacology at Queen Mary University of London and was previously awarded an OBE in 2014. Through her Witness Seminar series, Professor Tansey documented the history of genetics and geneticists through interviews with those involved in the research. This included interviews with Professor Marcus Pembrey, patron of PET (the Progress Educational Trust).
Professor Tansey also co-edited a book on the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, established by Professor Pembrey and others, which includes contributions from various people involved in that project – epidemiologists, ethics committee members and study patients (see BioNews 669). Material generated from Professor Tansey's work on the history of biomedicine is freely available online.
Professor Caroline Ogilvie was awarded an OBE 'for services to patients with genetic disorders'. Professor Ogilvie worked as consultant clinical scientist in genetics at the South East Genomics Laboratory Hub, at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust. Professor Ogilvie's research specialised in embryo development and chromosome disorders (see BioNews 847 and 849), and she was a founding member of the Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis Centre.
Professor Ogilvie also served on one of the expert committees convened by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority to review the safety and efficacy of mitochondrial donation (see BioNews 880), and she coauthored a paper on that subject with chair of trustees, Professor Robin Lovell-Badge, chair of trustees at PET.
Professor Robin Ali was awarded an OBE 'for services to gene and cell therapies'. Professor Ali is director of the Centre for Gene Therapy and Regenerative Medicine at King's College London (KCL). His work focuses on developing gene and stem cell therapies for retinal disorders (see BioNews 384 and 816), and he has developed a pipeline for development of eye disease therapies from proof-of-concept pre-clinical studies to clinical trials and commercialisation. Professor Ali is also director of the KCL Gene Therapy Vector Facility, which manufactures clinical-grade vectors for first-in-human trials.